A newly formed affiliate of Boone Newspapers has acquired the Stanly News & Press in Albemarle, N.C. from Montgomery, Ala.-based Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.

Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, a media merger and acquisition firm based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, represented CNHI in the transaction.

The Stanly News & Press is published three days a week with circulation of approximately 5,000 on Tuesdays and Thursdays and 6,100 on Sunday.

The acquiring company was Albemarle Newsmedia, LLC, a new North Carolina entity owned by Boone Newspapers, Inc. (BNI) and Carpenter Newsmedia, LLC (CNL). BNI and CNL have offices in Natchez, Mississippi and Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Todd Carpenter, of Natchez, is BNI’s president and chief executive officer. James B. Boone Jr., of Tuscaloosa, is BNI’s chairman.

“We are pleased and honored to assume ownership of and responsibility for the Stanly News & Press and look forward to working with each staff member and the community. We will work hard to meet every obligation to the community and to produce a newspaper and website of which the community can be proud,” Carpenter said.

Sandy Selvy-Mullis will remain as Stanly News & Press publisher. Selvy-Mullis began her career in newspapers with the Ottumwa (Iowa) Courier In 2007, she became publisher of the Stanly News & Press.

BNI and CNL also own and BNI manages 80 newspapers in similar-sized communities around the country. Other North Carolina affiliates of BNI and CNL are in Salisbury, Tryon, Washington, Ahoskie, Gatesville, Mocksville and Clemmons.